


Teacups & Ton-Tongue Toffees

by lady_storyteller



Series: Teacups & Toffees (Hogwild Series) [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Boarding School, F/M, Hogsmeade, Hogwarts, Ministry of Magic (Harry Potter), Orphanage, Post-Battle of Hogwarts, The Burrow (Harry Potter), Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-20 20:01:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17029092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lady_storyteller/pseuds/lady_storyteller
Summary: George Weasley is everything Kassandra Ward wasn’t looking for but she’s everything George wants.Three years after the death of his twin brother and best friend, George is still ghosting through life. Going through the motions but not really feeling the humor he sales. Until she walked back in her life.He lost Kassandra to a joke gone wrong their sixth year and now that she’s back in Hogsmeade, he’s not going to let her go.But Kassandra’s past has her own secrets. And the perfect witch she tries to appear to be is threatened to unravel as she’s put in charge of her departed brother’s five-year-old sons.All George wanted was to make her laugh, now it might be time for both to learn to smile again. But will the dark secrets in Kassandra’s past be something George can forgive?Welcome to the first installment of the Hogwild Series.





	Teacups & Ton-Tongue Toffees

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own any of Harry Potter, I am just a huge fan. And this is the story I wish George had been given after the war. I do not own any of the HP elements but I do own the characters and original work I do in this world. However, if you want to play with them yourself, please feel free! Let me know though.
> 
> This is my story. What I see happening after the war. The choices I make in it are not done lightly. I love these characters. They mean the world to me. I hope you enjoy. Constructive criticism is always welcome! 
> 
> This is also my first time posting here so I'm still learning the formating.

Chapter One

_Home Again?_

Kassandra Ward watched as her identical twin nephews threw silver sickles into the Victory Monument in the center of Hogsmeade.

It was a large fountain just as grand as any she had seen in visits to Italy.

It reminded her of the statue that once stood in the Ministry of Magic in London. Except the magical creatures in it where not looking up at the witch and wizards with adoration but out to the sky, their various faces full of noble determination.

She did not know if the centaurs holding their bows, the house-elf with mismatched soaks, or any of the merfolk were based on actual creatures who fought in the war but she knew the three at the top. The witch and two wizards held their wands high, arches of water spurting from the tip. Each faced a different direction, but she knew them. Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ronald Weasley. And when one stood in certain spots around the fountain, the wands would line up to form the letter V.

There was a gold plaque in its base stating that all proceeds went to aiding the families of victims of the war.

Three years had passed since the fall of He Who Shall Not Be Named. Three years since she’d set foot back in the United Kingdom. And Hogsmeade still showed signs that the war had been there.

Some shops were closed, others were under new management. And then, of course, there was this fountain. An eternal reminder of the darkest days of their lives.

Running her thumb along her own silver coin, she closed her eyes and wished. Please, don’t let me mess them up.

“Whoa, look at that!” one of the twins cried, sounding too far away.

Eyes snapping open, Kassandra looked around. Bits of her brown hair fell out of her bun, tickling her cheeks. 

Rhys and Ryan were running down High Street as fast as their little legs could carry them. Straight to a garishly orange and purple building plastered with signs that reminded her of an old circus tent.

“No,” she groaned, taking chase after her five-year-old nephews as they ducked into the shop. “Rhys, Ryan, stop! Stay with me!” She hesitated after a few steps. Looking back, she saw all their luggage just sitting there, unattended by the fountain.

Taking out her wand, she gave it a flick. “Go on now. Up to the house, I’ll be there soon.”

The trunks all took flight, zooming down the road before zagging up a side street and out of sight.

She took off again, bursting into the unfamiliar shop.

“Ryan? Rhys?” Her voice trailed off. What madness had she walked into?

Even so early in the morning, this shop was packed with witches and wizards of all ages. A couple of kids were giggling at a Madam Zelda fortune teller that had been popular on Muggle boardwalks. 

The shelves were packed with oddly shaped boxes labeled with items she’d never heard of before. Trick wands, decoy detectors, extendable ears. She curled her lip at the sight of a jar of green sweets labeled U-No-Poo.

Nothing here made sense. The shelves were all painted different colors. There was no rhythm or reason to any of it. No patterns. It was like they just painted until they ran out of one color and went on to the next.

“Excuse me,” she said as she squeezed between a young man eyeing familiar orange boxes with large purple Ws on them. Her heart hit her stomach. “Skiving Snackboxes.” 

No, no, no. That wasn’t right. He’d opened his shop in London. Not Hogsmeade. Dylan would have told her if he’d had a shop here. Unless she thought it would affect her coming home. Which it would have.

_Dylan Chambers, you fink._

“Do you mind?” the young man asked, arching a dark brow at her. He was clearly wanting to grab up a snackbox.

“Hogwarts student?” she asked, looking him up and down. 

“Yeah,” the kid said.

“Those things are banned at school, you know.”

He smirked. “What are you? A teacher?”

“No. But I was a Prefect once. And rules are rules for a reason.”

“Whatever,” he pushed past her and grabbed two of the boxes. 

“Good luck getting down the other half of the Puking Pastille,” she called, annoyed. This place was bringing back a load of bad memories.

She was twenty-three years old and up to a few months ago had a successful career in the French Ministry of Magic. Her school days were over.

“Boys!” Kassandra shouted, watching in horror as the two boys were _walking up the side of the wall._

Ryan looked back at her, a grin so big she could see his missing front tooth. “Look at us, Aunt Kassandra. Isn’t this cool?”

“These shoes are the best! Can we get some?” Rhys asked, showing his own teeth. His missing tooth on the left, mirroring Ryan’s.

“Special deal for Ravenclaw’s former Prefect,” a voice tickled her ear.

Kassandra jerked around and came face to face with the very man she had hoped to avoid.

George Weasley looked thinner, his cheeks a little hollower, his eyes a little more sad. But he still had that devilish smirk of his. The one that had convinced her to go to the Yule Ball with him their sixth year.

That had been a mistake. One she would not make again.

“Boys, come on. We’re leaving. Dylan’s waiting for us.” She was not going to turn her back on George when his own dangerous inventions were all around him. But she gave them a glance back.

“Aww, come on,” they whined. 

“Boys, come on.” Her words were clipped. She just wanted to be out of there. She had enough bad memories not to have to go reliving the most humiliating night of her Hogwarts career now.

“Visiting from Paris?” George asked, leaning against the counter. He was watching her every move and she would not betray her thoughts. She was a Ward. She was raised to hide her emotions before she could walk.

Still, curiosity drove her to ask, “How did you know I was in Paris?”

“Chambers. Ginny played on the Holyhead Harpies with her. Though rumor has it, Chambers is retiring this year.”

“She did,” Kassandra said, glancing back to make sure the twins were taking off those horrible yellow trainers. 

“You still haven’t learned to have fun, have you?” 

Her eyes snapped back to George, narrowing. “I have fun.”

“Hiding in the corners and reading?”

A blush slowly crept up her cheeks. She remembered those moments when she was sixteen when he would find her in her favorite hiding spots. Away from being the perfect Ravenclaw, perfect prefect, perfect Ward.

He was mocking her with it now. She’d been so stupid to fall for his tricks. 

“Just because I don’t find slapstick humorous and don’t laugh at someone else’s misfortune, doesn’t mean I don’t know how to have fun.” 

As she turned to whirl away, his hand found her wrist. His touch was gentle, electrifying. And it brought back a slew of heated moments that even now she had to remind herself was all a lie.

Looking back at him, she saw a look of anguish on his face. And she was reminded that he was missing his other half. His mirror image was gone and with it, so was some of his joy.

I’m sorry was on the tip of her tongue but she held it back. They were such useless words. 

When George spoke, his question took her off guard. “Where’s your brother?”

“What?”

“Your nephews are here. You’re visiting, right? But I thought your brother disappeared during the war.”

Did he know the truth? Did he realize what side Sebastian had been on?

“He and his wife went to the States. Safest choice for their kids at the time, I guess. They’re gone now. I’m the boys’ guardian.”

The twins had finally joined her, their more sensible trainers back on.

“So, you’ve moved back?” George asked and for a moment she thought she saw a spark in his eyes.

“Yeah. We’re going to our new house today,” Ryan said excitedly.

“It’s a real house too. Not a condo like in Paris,” Rhys added.

“And no Lou-ee,” Ryan said triumphantly.

“Which was spelled like Louis but he always got made if we called him that,” Rhys shared sagely.

“Louis, huh?” George said in a mockingly French accent. The haunted look was gone now, and she could see the boy she’d known in Hogwarts. He was still in there somewhere. “Terrible prat, was he?”

“The worst. I’m Ryan.”

“I’m Rhys.”

“Don’t even try the switching thing,” Kassandra warned.

“She can always tell us apart,” Ryan signed dramatically.

“Yeah,” George said, his brown eyes locking on hers. “She was always good at that.”

“We’re going,” Kassandra said, ushering both boys out ahead of her.

“Come back anytime,” George called out jovially.

“I really don’t think so.”

“See you tomorrow,” called Ryan.

“Who was that anyway?” asked Rhys.

The door closed on the rich sound of George’s laughter. She was going to kill Dylan.


End file.
